French artist Rero is using a series of breath-taking installations to transform the Backslash gallery space: reflecting his interactions with the urban environment, he turns the gallery into a street. A pile of damaged books discarded on the ground, a partially destroyed wall, the shadow of an advertising billboard reflected on the floor… The artist’s audacity contrasts with canvases that play on the theme of image negation.

Halfway between street art and conceptual art, Rero’s life as an artist began in the street, as he searched for abandoned places where he could leave his mark. The outdoors then gave way to the indoors, and he has enriched his mode of expression with paintings in different materials, resins and embossing.

A multi-disciplinary artist, Rero questions codes governing intellectual property, images and computer language, denouncing them by scoring them out with a thick black line. Jean-Michel Basquiat explained “I cross out words so you will see them more. The fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them”. Negation, self-censorship and distortion are the keywords in his work.

Using scored out expressions such as Trade my mark,Error 404 and This image is free copyright, the artist is seeking to confuse the viewer, whose interpretative responses are multiplied. Each of us sees a double meaning in the negation of these words—which could just as easily turn into total nonsense.

Rero has shown his work at the Hybride in Lille, Antje Oeklesund in Berlin, Maison des Métallos in Paris and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. He has also had a dedicated exhibition at Confluences in Paris in 2010. He is taking part in a group exhibition at the Lilas town from 3 to 26 February 2011 with other artists including Speedy Graphito, JonOne and Jef Aerosol.